McCain - Palin

So while John McCain certainly did NOT take my VP selection advice, he did manage to address a number of concerns with his selection of Governor Sarah Palin:

• There's no doubt she's a conservative (i.e., NRA member, pro-life, religious, traditional family).
  
• She has more Executive experience than McCain, Barack, and Biden ... combined!!
  
• She's a firm believer in cutting government spending and doing away with PORK projects (e.g., the Bridge to Nowhere).
  
• Just like there are folks who will never vote for a black man, there are also folks who will never vote for a woman. As I've said before, eliminating these folks from the voter pool is a good thing.
  
• She has a son in the military ... who will soon be deployed to Iraq.
  
• She has a special needs child ... which will certainly garner a whole lot of sympathy.
  
• She's young.
  

On the down side ...

• She's probably too attractive ... some, unfortunately, will not take her seriously.
  
• She's not well known outside of Alaska ... but that will change soon.
  

There's also the issue of how this might influence Hillary Clinton supporters who are disenchanted with Obama Barack. Regardless of what you might think of Hillary personally, she has proven to be much more conservative than Obama (yeah, everything is relative, right?). In fact, she and John McCain are in agreement on a number of issues (which, in and of itself, is rather frightening). Except for those die-hard pro-choice, one issue voters, McCain's selection of Gov. Palin will probably appeal to a very, very, very large number of Hillary supporters.

And, should McCain win (perhaps bolstered by cross-over Hillary Democrats) and choose not to run for re-election (he'll be 76!), it could set up a very interesting 2012 campaign ... Palin vs. Clinton. Very interesting, indeed!